Question no 1

Please read the article attached here write 1. Summary of the article; 2. How the article changed your view; 3. How you would apply the information in your article as an entrepreneur.

Confronted with life's hardships, some people snap, and others snap back. Resine? Diane L. Coutu A HEN I BEGAN MY CAREER in illnesses, and a third was killed in a traf- eral months, howewer, I have looked on joumalism-I was a reporter fic accident. Despite all this-or maybe it with a new urgency, for it seems tome at a national magazine in because of it -he milled around the that the terrorism, war, and recession of hose days - there was a man I'll call newsroom day after day, mentoring recent months have made understandlaus Schmidt. He was in his mid-fifties, the cub reporters, talking about the now - ing resilience more important than ever. nd to my impressionable eyes, he was els he was writing-always looking for- 1 have considered both the nature of he quintessential newsman: cynical at ward to what the future held for him. individual resilience and what makes imes, but unrelentingly curious and full Why do some people suffer real hard- some organizations as a whole more ref life, and often hilariously funny in a ships and not falter? Claus Schmidt silient than others. Why do some people andpaper-dry kind of way. He churned could have reacted very differently. and some companies buckle under presut hard-hitting cover stories and fea- We've all seen that happen: One per- sure? And what makes others bend and ures with a speed and elegance I could son cannot seem to get the confidence ultimately bounce back? nly dream of. It always astounded me back after a layoff, another, persistently My exploration has taught me much hat he was never promoted to manas- depressed, takes a few years off from about resilience, although it's a subject ag editor. life after her divorce. The question we none of us will ever understand fully. But people who knew Claus better would all like answered is, Why? What Indeed, resilience is one of the great han I did thought of him not just as a exactly is that quality of resilience that puzzles of human nature, like creativity reat newsman but as a quintessential carries people through life? or the religious instinct. But in sifting urvivor, someone who had endured in It's a question that has fascinated me through psychological research and in n environment often hostile to talent. ever since I first leamed of the Holo- reflecting on the many stories of rete had lived through at least three caust survivors in elementary school. silience I've heard, I have seen a little najor changes in the magazine's lead- In college, and later in my studies as more deeply into the hearts and minds rship, losing most of his best friends an affiliate scholar at the Boston Psy of people like Claus Schmidt and, in nd colleagues on the way. At home, two choanalytic Society and Institute, I re- doing so, looked more deeply into the f his children succumbed to incurable turned to the subject. For the past sev- human pyyche as well. 6 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW The Buzz About Resilience a smooth ride to the top. He'd started the cancer ward, it's true in the Olymhis life as a poor French Canadian in pics, and it's true in the boardroom.. Resilience is a hot topic in business Woonsocket, Rhode lsland, and had lost Academic research into resilience these days. Not long ago, I was talking to his father at six. He lucked into a foot- started about 40 years ago with pioa senior partner at a respected consult- ball scholarship but was kicked out of neering studies by Norman Garmezy, ing firm about how to land the very best Boston University twice for drinking He now a professor emeritus at the UniMBAs-the name of the game in that turned his life around in his twenties, versity of Minnesota in Minneapolis. particular industry. The partner, Daniel married, divorced, remarried, and raised After studying why many children of Savageau (not his real name), ticked off five children. Along the way, he made schizophrenic parents did not suffer a long list of qualities his firm sought and lost two fortunes before helping to psychological illness as a result of growin its hires: intelligence, ambition, in- found the consulting firm he now runs. ing up with them, he concluded that. tegrity, analytic ability, and so on. "What "Yes, it does matter," he said at last. "In a certain quality of resilience played a about resilience?" I asked. "Well, that's fact, it probably matters more than any greater role in mental health than anyvery popular right now," he said. "It's the of the usual things we look for." In the one had previously suspected. new buzzword. Candidates even tell us course of reporting this article, I heard Today, theories abound about what they're resilient; they volunteer the in- the same assertion time and again. As makes resilience. Looking at Holocaust formation. But frankly, they're just too Dean Becker, the president and CEO of victims, Maurice Vanderpol, a former young to know that about themselves. Adaptiv Learning Systems, a four-year- president of the Boston Psychoanalytic Resilience is something you realize you old company in King of Prussia, Penn- Society and Institute, found that many have after the fact." sylvania, that develops and delivers pro- of the healthy survivors of concentra"But if you could, would you test for grams about resilience training, puts it: tion camps had what he calls a "plastic it?" I asked. "Does it matter in business?" "More than education, more than expe- shicld." The shield was comprised of Savageau paused. He's a man in his rience, more than training, a person's several factors, including a sense of hulate forties and a success personally level of resilience will determine who mor. Often the humor was black, but and professionally. Yet it hadn't been succeeds and who fails. That's true in nonetheless it provided a critical sense MAY 2002 HBR AT LARGE + How Resilience works of perspective. Other core characteris- life is meaningful; and an uncanny abil- down-to-earth views of those parts of tics that helped included the ability to ity to improvise. You can bounce back reality that matter for survival. That's form attachments to others and the pos- from hardship with just one or two of not to say that optimism doesn't have its session of an inner psychological space these qualities, but you will only be truly places in turning around a demoralized that protected the survivors from the resilient with all three. These threechar- sales force, for instance, conjuring a intrusions of abusive others. Research acteristics hold true for resilient organi- sense of possibility can be a very powabout other groups uncovered different zations as well. Let's take a look at each erful tool. But for bigger challenges, a qualities associated with resilience. The of them in turn. cool, almost pessimistic, sense of reality Search Institute, a Minneapolis-based Facing Down Reality is far more important. nonprofit organization that focuses on Facing Down Reality Perhaps you're asking yourself, "Do resilience and youth, found that the Acommon belief about resilience is that I truly understand-and accept-the realmore resilient kids have an uncanny it stems from an optimistic nature. That's ity of my situation? Does my organizaability to get adults to help them out. true but only as long as such optimism tion?" Those are good questions, particStill other research showed that resil- doesn't distort your sense of reality. ularly because research suggests most ient inner-city youth often have talents In extremely adverse situations, rose- people slip into denlal as a coping mechsuch as athletic abilities that attract oth- colored thinking can actually spell di- anism. Facing reality, really facing it, is ers to them. _ saster. This point was made poignantly grueling work. Indeed, it can be un Many of the carly theorics about re- to me by management researcher and pleasant and oftenemotionally wrenchsilience stressed the role of genetics. writer Jim Collins, who happened upon ing. Consider the following story of orSome people are just born resilient, so this concept while researching Good ganizational resilience, and see what it the arguments went. There's some truth to Great, his book on how companies means to confront reality. to that, of course, but an increasing body transform themselves out of mediocrity. Prior to September 11, 2001, Morgan of empirical evidence shows that re- Collins had a hunch (an exactly wrong Stanley, the famous investment bank, silience-whether in children, survivors hunch) that resilient companies were was the largest tenant in the World Trade Center. The company had some 2,700 "MORE THAN EDUCATION, more than experience,_ employees working in the south tower more than training, a person's level of resilience will 74 th. On that horrible day, the first plane determine who succeeds and who fails. That's true hit the north tower at 8466AM, and Mor. minute later, at 8:47 Am. When the secin the cancer ward, it's true in the Olympics, and and plane crashed into the south tower it's true in the boardroom." 15 minutes after that, Morgan Stanley's offices were largely empty. All told, the company lost only seven employees deof concentration camps, or businesses filled with optimistic people. He tried spite receiving an almost direct hit. back from the brink-can be learned. out that idea on Admiral Jim Stockdale, Of course, the organization was just For example, George Vaillant, the direc- who was held prisoner and tortured by plain lucky to be in the second tower. tor of the Study of Adult Development the Vietcong for eight years. Cantor Fitzgerald, whose offices were at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Collins recalls: "I asked Stockdale: hit in the first attack, couldn't have done observes that within various groups 'Who didn't make it out of the camps?' anything to save its employees. Still, it studied during a 6o-year period, some And he said, 'Oh, that's easy. It was the was Morgan Stanley's hard-nosed realpeople became markedly more resilient optimists. They were the ones who said ism that enabled the company to beneover their lifetimes. Other psychologists we were going to be out by Christmas. fit from its luck. Soon after the 1993 atclaim that unresilient people more eas. And then they said we'd be out by Easter tack on the World Trade Center, senior ily develop resiliency skills than those and then out by Fourth of July and out management recognized that working with head starte by Thanksgiving, and then it was Christ- in such a symbolic center of U.S. comMost of the resilience theories 1 en- mas again.' Then Stockdale turned to mercial power made the company vulcountered in my rescarch make good me and said, " 'You know, I think they all nerable to attention from terrorists and common sense. But I also observed that died of broken hearts.' possible attack. almost all the theories overlap in three in the business world, Collins found With this grim realization, Morgan ways. Resilient people, they posit, pos- the same unblinking attitude shared by Stanley launched a program of presess three characteristics: a staunch ac- executives at all the most successful ceptance of reality; a deep belief, often companies he studied. Like Stockdale, Diane L. Coutu is a sentior editor at HBR buttressed by strongly held values, that resilient people have very sober and specializing in pychology and business. 48 HARVARD BUSINESS RFVIEW HB R AT LARGE + How Resilience Works for us to help people construct mean- and schism for more than 2,000 years, from most of the other tobacco compaing in their everyday lives," explains Sal- thanks largely to its immutable set of nies. In this context, it is worth noting vatore R. Maddi, a University of Cali- values. Businesses that survive also have that resilience is neither ethically good fornia, Irvine paychology professor and their creeds, which give them purposes nor bad. It is merely the skill and the the director of the Hardiness Institute beyond just making money. Strikingly, capacity to be robust under conditions in Newport Beach, California. "When many companies describe their value of enormous stress and change. As Vikpeople realize the power of resilience systems in religious terms. Pharmaceu" tor Frankl wrote: "On the average, only training they often say, , Doc, is this what tical giant Johnson \& Johnson, for in- those prisoners could keep alive who, psychotherapy is?' But psychotherapy stance, calls its value system, set out in a after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight RESILIENCE is neither ethically good nor bad. It is for existence; they were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, merely the skill and the capacity to be robust under. even brutal..., in order to save themknow: The best of us did not return." Values, positive or negative, are actually more important for organizational is for people whose lives have fallen document given to every new employee resilience than having resilient people apart badly and need repair. We see our at orientation, the Credo. Parcel com- on the payroll. If resilient employees are work as showing people life skills and pany UPS talks constantly about its all interpreting reality in different ways, attitudes. Maybe those things should Noble Purpose. their decisions and actions may well be taught at home, maybe they should be Value systems at resilient companies conflict, calling into doubt the survival taught in schools, but they're not. So we change very little over the years and are of their organization. And as the weakYet the challenge confronting resil- UPS Chairman and CEO Mike Eskew ent, highly resilient individuals are more ience trainers is often more difficult than believes that the Noble Purpose helped likely to jettison the organization than we might imagine. Meaning can be elu- the company to rally after the agonizing to imperil their own survival. sive, and just because you found it once strike in 1997. Says Eskew: "It was a doesn't mean you'll keep it or find it hugely difficult time, like a family feud. Ritualized Ingenuity again. Consider Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Everyone had close friends on both The third building block of resilience is who survived the war against the Nazis, sides of the fence, and it was tough for the ability to make do with whatever imprisonment in the gulag, and cancer. us to pick sides. But what saved us was is at hand. Psychologists follow the lead Yet when he moved to a farm in peace- our Noble Purpose. Whatever side peo- of French anthropologist Claude Leviful, safe Vermont, he could not cope ple were on, they all shared a common Strauss in calling this skill bricolage.' Inwith the "infantile West." He was unable set of values. Those values are core to us triguingly, the roots of that word are to discern any real meaning in what he and never change; they frame most of closely tied to the concept of resilience, felt to be the destructive and irrespon- our important decisions. Our strategy which literally means "bouncing back." sible freedom of the West. Upset by his and our mission may change, but our Says Levi-Strauss: "In its old sense, the critics, he withdrew into his farmhouse, values never do." verb bricoler...was always used with refbehind a locked fence, seldom to be seen The religious connotations of words erence to some extraneous movement: in public. In 1994, a bitter man, Solzhe- like "credo," "values," and "noble pur- a ball rebounding, a dog straying, or a nitsyn mowed back to Russia. _ pose," however, should not be confused horse swerving from its direct course to Since finding meaning in one's envi- with the actual content of the values. avoid an obstacle." ronment is such an important aspect of Companies can hold ethically question- Bricolage in the modern sense can be resilience, it should come as no surprise able values and still be very resilient. defined as a kind of inventiveness, an that the most successful organizations Consider Phillip Morris, which has dem- ability to improvise a solution to a proband people possess strong value sys- onstrated impressive resilience in the lem without proper or obvious tools or tems. Strong values infuse an environ- face of increasing unpopularity. As Jim materials. Bricoleurs are always tinkerment with meaning because they offer Collins points out, Phillip Morris has very ing-building radios from household efways to interpret and shape events. strong values, although we might not fects or fixing their own cars. They make While it's popular these days to ridicule agree with them-for instance, the value the most of what they have, putting obvalues, it's surely no coincidence that of "adult cholce." But there's no doubt jects to unfamiliar uses. In the concenthe most resilient organization in the that Phillip Morris executives believe tration camps, for example, resilient inworld has been the Catholic Church, strongly in its values, and the strength mates knew to pocket pleces of string which has survived wars, corruption, of their beliefs sets the company apart or wire whenever they found them. The 52 HaRVARD BUSINESS REVIEW string or wire might later become use- code numbers they might forget but ple to focus on the one or two fixes they ful-to fix a pair of shoes, perhaps, which would instead use a sequence with needed to make in order to keep going. in freezing conditions might make the mathematical significance. It turned Eskew's opinion is echoed by Karl E. difference between life and death._ out that the three safes containing all Weick, a professor of organizational When situations unravel, bricoleurs the secrets to the atomic bomb were set behavior at the University of Michigan muddle through, imagining possibilities to the same mathematical constant, e, Business School in Ann Arbor and one where others are confounded. I have two whose first six digits are 2.71828. of the most respected thinkers on orgafriends, whom I'll call Paul Shields and Resilient organizations are stuffed nizational psychology. "There is good Mike Andrews, who were roommates with bricoleurs, though not all of them, evidence that when people are put unthroughout their college years. To no of course, are Richard Feynmans. In- der pressure, they regress to their most one's surprise, when they graduated, deed, companies that survive regard im- habituated ways of responding," Weick. they set up a business together, selling provisation as a core skill. Consider UPS, has written. "What we do not expect educational materials to schools, busi- which empowers its drivers to do what- under life-threatening pressure is crenesses, and consulting firms. At first, the ever it takes to deliver packages on time. ativity." In other words, the rules and company was a great success, making Says CEO Eskew: "We tell our employees regulations that make some companies both founders paper millionaires. But to get the job done. If that means they appear less creative may actually make the recession of the early 19905 hit the need to improvise, they improvise. Oth- them more resilient in times of real company hard, and many core clients erwise we just couldn't do what we do turbulence. fell away. At the same time, Paul experi- every day. Just think what can go wrong: enced a bitter divoree and a depression a busted traffic light, a flat tire, a bridge Claus Schmidt, the newsman I menthat made it impossible for him to work. washed out. If a snowstorm hits Louis- tioned earlier, died about five years ago, Mike offered to buy Paul out but was in- ville tonight, a group of people will sit but I'm not sure I could have interstead slapped with a lawsuit claiming together and discuss how to handle the viewed him about his own resilience that Mike was trying to steal the busi- problem. Nobody tells them to do that. even if he were alive. It would have felt ness. At this point, a less resilient per- They come together because it's our strange, I think, to ask him, "Claus, did son might have just walked away from tradition to do 50. you really face down reality? Did you the mess. Not Mike. As the case wound That tradition meant that the com- make meaning out of your hardships? through the courts, he kept the company pany was delivering parcels in southeast Did you improvise your recovery after going any way he could-constantly Florida just one day after Hurricane An- each professional and personal disasmorphing the business until he found a drew devastated the region in 1992, caus- ter?" He may not have been able to anmodel that worked: going into joint ven- ing billions of dollars in damage. Many swer. In my experience, resilient people tures to sell English-language training people were living in their cars because don't often describe themselves that materials to Russian and Chinese com- their homes had been destroyed, yet way. They shrug off their survival stories panies. Later, he branched off into pub- UPS drivers and managers sorted pack- and very often assign them to luck. lishing newsletters for clients. At one ages at a diversion site and made deliv- Obviously, luck does have a lot to do point, he was even writing video scripts eries even to those who were stranded with surviving. It was luck that Morgan for his competitors. Thanks to all this in their cars. It was largely UPS's impro- Stanley was situated in the south tower bricolage, by the time the lawsuit was visational skills that enabled it to keep and could put its preparedness training settled in his favor, Mike had an entirely functioning after the catastrophic hit. to work. But being lucky is not the same different, and much more solid, business And the fact that the company contin- as being resilient. Resilience is a reflex, than the one he had started with. ued on gave others a sense of purpose or a way of facing and understanding the Bricolage can be practiced on a higher meaning amid the chaos. world, that is deeply etched into a perlevel as well. Richard Feymman, winner Improvisation of the sort practiced by son's mind and soul. Resilient people and of the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics, ex- UPS, however, is a far cry from unbri- companies face reality with staunchness, emplified what 1 like to think of as in- dled creativity. Indeed, much like the make meaning of hardship instead of tellectual bricolage. Out of pure curios- military, UPS lives on rules and regula- crying out in despair, and improvise soity, Feynman made himself an expert on tions. As Eskew says: Drivers always put lutions from thin air. Others do not. This cracking safes, not only looking at the their keys in the same place. They close is the nature of resilience, and we will mechanics of safecracking but also cob- the doors the same way. They wear their never completely understand it. bling together psychological insights uniforms the same way. We are a comabout people who used safes and set pany of precision." He believes that althe locks. He cracked many of the safes though they may seem stifling. UPS's at Los Alamos, for instance, because rules were what allowed the company he guessed that theoretical physicists to bounce back immediately after Hur- Reprint R0205 Teonder neprints see the hast page would not set the locks with random ricane Andrew, for they enabled peo- of ruecutive Summaries Copyright 2002 Harvard Business Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Additional restrictions may apply including the use of this content as assigned course material. Please consult your institution's librarian about any restrictions that might apply under the license with your institution. 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